Another awful week of controversy struck the UFC in what seemed to be another normal Apex Card. As a bright spot, we understand that judging wasn’t an issue. On a far less brighter spot, we’re going to dive a bit on officiating and of course, the huge betting scandal allegations that surely, will create ripples throughout this week.
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Waldo Cortes Acosta defeats Ante Delija by R1 KO
Eye Pokes became the enemy once again, and once more with heavyweights. This time however, the controversy was exponentially worse than what we saw last week. In the span of a little under 10 Minutes we saw two UFC heavyweights each record a knockout win, though obviously only one of them was validated.
After attempting to utilize his classic clinch against the cage tactics, Ante Delija used his superior skillset to deviate from Waldo Cortes Acosta’s stalling techniques, only to engage with Waldo in a brawl, landing vicious shots, leading to the Dominican covering up. This happened at around 1:34 on the clock, where repeat infractor Mark Smith yelled “Stop, Stop, Stop”.
At this point, corners are inside the cage, medics are inside the cage, Waldo is resting on the stool while the Croatian is talking to his own team. While all this is on-going, we get the “Official Decision” banners on our screens. Mark Smith is then notified that there was in fact an eye poke from Ante.
Acosta receives the medical attention, is asked if he’s good to continue and everyone is escorted out of the cage. The fight resumes and roughly 30 seconds later, Waldo lands a huge right that knocks out Ante Delija. Waldo is now declared the winner by knockout.
Firstly, let’s assess what happened correctly and incorrectly in this bout. Mark Smith was right of not stopping this fight and of not allowing Ante Delija to win this bout via Knockout, due to an eye poke. That’s basically where it ends for what was done correctly.
What was done incorrectly is what needs to be studied. Cages are open, all camera crew are now inside the octagon as well as fighters corners, as they normally do when a fight is over. At this point, there is no verbalization from Mark Smith on what happens next, and he is failing to make it clear the fight is indeed over or not . Mark Smith used the replay to determine the “fight ending sequence” which was in fact an illegal eye poke. He can or cannot now determine if the fight ends in a No Contest or a DQ. Mark Smith used the replay to RE-COMMENCE the fight, which is not mentioned as permitted in the Unified Rules of MMA. Mark Smith, therefore, is breaking the Unified Rules of MMA for permitting this fight to continue. In my opinion, a DQ would had been a better option than allowing a fighter that technically got knocked out to continue, though the correct decision should had been a “No Contest”
Now, if we want to analyze something similar and done the right way, look no further than Kevin Holland against Kyle Daukaus. This matchup took place in October of 2021, where Kyle Daukaus seemingly hurt Holland, knocking him down and finding the submission finish. Mirgaliotta then realizes the clash of heads upon replay, and determines the fight a No Contest. Personally, this was perfectly executed by Mirgaliotta.
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Yadier Del Valle defeats Isaac Dulgarian by R1 Submission
Gambling in MMA can be an extremely frustrating experience because of unknown circumstances. Events that are completely out of the ordinary happen quite occasionally. Those usually include bad referring, bad judging or odd injuries. Rarely, however, do we see such blatant fight fixing as we did on Saturday Night between Isaac Dulgarian, and Yadier Del Valle.
Hours leading up to the fight, the Dulgariaan odds went from -240 all the way down to -135. Moreover, the odds on his opponent, Del Valle, to win in R1 got chopped in half from +800 all the way down to +400. Not to mention, we saw some sportsbooks remove their betting lines from this fight all together, with some books going as far as to reimbursing those that lost money in this fight.
The fight ended as we all expected after this suspicious movement. Dulgarian gets a take down, gets reversed, and is unable to defend a submission. Losing isn’t the problem. The problem was losing in such a way where it made no sense, considering we’ve seen Dulgarian as a nightmare matchup for his opponents before and while Del Valle is an amazing fighter, no one would believe he would submit Dulgarian with ease in Round 1, almost seeming that Isaac was helping him along the way.
To describe it better, it seemed like a jiu-jitsu partner helping the less experienced white-belt find the submission win. Obviously, I’m not calling Del Valle inexperienced. Rather, I am pointing out to the fact that Dulgarian was giving him openings that we never see UFC fighters do.
We then found out early Monday Morning, Dulgarian was removed from the UFC roster and that the UFC was made aware of the suspicious movement prior to the fight, with the FBI advising the organization to scrap the bout. After officials verified with Dulgarian’s corner there was no foul play, the fight proceeded and the outcome didn’t surprise many.
Of course, this is still in the early developmental stages and I am only dealing with hard facts over speculation. A few things we do know is that Isaac Dulgarian is a former athlete of James Krause, who notoriously was involved in the largest gambling scandal in the UFC’s history. We also know that the UFC’s betting integrity partner, IC360 is also conducting an internal analysis on the matter. We also do know that the performance from Dulgarian was far below what is expected from an athlete of his magnitude and that the betting lines moved in a way that is far from ordinary. Finally, Dulgarian mentioned in an interview with MMA Junkie that fighters should be able to keep a 3% Cut off winnings off their bets, leading to speculation that the fighter had action on his own fight.
In more recent news, the Nevada State Athletic commission has withheld 100% of Dulgarian’s purse, representing their wishes to collaborate with the FBI and authorities in what now is a very concrete investigation.
With the NBA’s recent gambling issues, this becomes far more concerning as we now wonder if this has happened with other UFC fighters and fights. Hopefully the investigation uncovers the truth about this potential scandal and that we have more clarity on the matter in the near future.
MMA is already an unpredictable sport and sometimes the oddity is overlooked as people have become numb to events happening that make little sense. I think it’s a wonderful idea for the FBI to take a long glance at some questionable stoppages and finishes in these fights, because sometimes it could involve judges, corners and referees rather than one single entity. What I am trying to say is that we are naive to believe that Isaac Dulgarian is the sole culprit. In my opinion, he’s the tip of the ice-berg.
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